When Prisons Jail Kids for Cash

[Gidney N Cloyd]

When did this For-profit prison shit start, anyway? And how could the logical progression be anything other than toward harsher sentencing, increased jail time, and corruption?
Page's column didn't mention what the prison companies' punishment would be for apparently bribing the two judges. Anyone in DU-land know more?

When prisons jail kids for cash

Clarence Page
March 1, 2009

While many Americans, including me, were caught up in the fury around the New York Post's weird dead chimpanzee cartoon, remarkably less attention was paid to a far more serious scandal in Pennsylvania's coal country: a multimillion-dollar scheme to jail kids for cash.

The tale of two Luzerne County judges shows what can go terribly wrong with for-profit prisons and detention centers.

Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan pleaded guilty to sentencing thousands of children to jail, often without the offenders having access to a lawyer, in a kickback scheme that brought the judges a reported $2.6 million. The two received a commission for every day they sent a child to private detention centers run by Pennsylvania Child Care and a sister prison-management company, Western Pennsylvania Child Care.

MORE: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-oped0301pagemar01,0,285354.column

[varelse]

1. Another example of privatization gone awry

:kick:

[ellenfl]

2. jebbie privatized here too. it's scary. eom

[ooglymoogly]

3. Cheney has a large stake in prisons for profit....nuff said.

[WolverineDG]

4. They also let CPS take kids for cash too

bonuses for getting them into foster care & even more for terminating parental rights & adopting them out....minimum $10K/head....not chump change....

dg